February 10, 2008 - May 4, 2008

About the Exhibition

One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now, a traveling exhibition organized by the Asia Society, brings together seventeen artists from across the United States who challenge and extend the category of Asian American art. The title of the exhibition, drawn from the 1978 Blondie hit song, suggests a non-formulaic way of making or seeing art. The artists and their works characterize the freedom to choose, manipulate and reinvent different kinds of languages and issues, whether formal, conceptual, or political. Together, they defy a definitive conception of Asian American art.

The exhibition features painting, sculpture, video and installation art by contemporary Asian American artists who—with a strong sense of being American and an acute critical consciousness of world matters—grapple with issues of self in a way that sets them apart from their predecessors.

Curated by Melissa Chiu, Director of Contemporary Asian Art at the Asia Society Museum in New York, Karin Higa, Adjunct Senior Curator of Art at the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, and Susette S. Min, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and Art History at the University of California, Davis.

Photograph from exhibition installation at the Asia Society, New York, October 2006 by Eileen Costa, Courtesy of the Asia Society.

The exhibition was organized by Asia Society, New York with support from Altria Group, Inc., the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Nimoy Foundation, and
Asia Society's Contemporary Art Council. The Los Angeles installation is co-presented by the Asia Society of Southern California.